Beijing has unveiled 10 measures to conserve energy and reduce emissions, urging energy-intensive industries to deploy green projects and undertake upgrades to meet certain targets by 2025, to support its 2060 carbon neutral goal. The State Council, China’s cabinet, on Monday announced the comprehensive plan for energy conservation and emission reduction as part of the 14th five-year plan from 2021 to 2025. The measures cover a wide range of industries, including basic materials, renewables, construction, electric vehicles, transport, chemicals and utilities. “Energy conservation and emission reduction means to reduce energy consumption and curbing pollution from the beginning,” said a State Council spokesperson, adding that it was important to increase energy efficiency and ensure stable energy supply. By 2025, China’s energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product should drop by 13.5 per cent compared with 2020 levels, according to the plan. It seeks to reduce the emissions of key pollutants such as ammonia and nitrogen by 8 per cent and those of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds by more than 10 per cent each. China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, announced in September 2020 it plans to reach peak emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 to help the world combat climate change . It unveiled a series of five-year targets in March last year, which included reducing the country’s energy intensity by 13.5 per cent from 2020 levels by 2025, and carbon intensity by 18 per cent during the same period. In December, the central government announced a five-year plan targeting the carbon-intensive raw materials industry including steel, cement and aluminium, ordering sectors with excessive capacity to stop adding new capacity and to reduce energy consumption intensity. China sets 2025 deadline for steel, cement, aluminium and output of raw materials to meet carbon neutral goals The State Council’s plan on Monday called on key sectors, such as iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, building materials and petrochemicals, to undertake more energy-saving measures and pollutant-treatment measures. It said that by 2025, at least 530 million tonnes of iron and steel production capacity – a sector that contributes between 10 and 15 per cent of China’s total carbon emissions – must complete low-emission transformation. It also mandated that at least 30 per cent of production capacity in energy intensive industries must meet energy efficiency benchmarks. The plan also called for the construction of energy-efficient industrial estates, and for green upgrades in urban and rural areas. By 2025, the share of new energy vehicles should account for 20 per cent of overall vehicle sales. There is no change in the development plan for NEVs, which was issued in 2020. Key projects will also be deployed to control coal consumption growth and make coal-fired power plants more efficient, and to increase the share of non-fossil energy to 20 per cent of China’s total energy consumption by 2025. The government seeks to reduce coal consumption in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta region by 10 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively, during the five-year period. Most of the targets mentioned in the work plan on Monday are consistent with the previous targets announced in earlier policies, according to an analyst at Everbright Securities. “The five-year plan has set specific targets on reducing energy intensity, but no specific goals have been given on the total energy consumption level,” Yin Zhongshu, a researcher at the brokerage, said in a report on Tuesday. A climate expert said that China’s emissions targets for the next five years are too modest. “If we have a cap on carbon emissions aside from the energy intensity target, it will do more to encourage companies and provinces to decarbonise,” Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Post earlier.